Children and Youth Reported Missing from Out-Of-Home-Care in Australia
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CHILDREN AND YOUTH REPORTED MISSING FROM OUT-OF-HOME-CARE KATH MCFARLANE CONSULTING IN AUSTRALIA: Dr Kath McFarlane A review of the literature and analysis of Australian police data A report prepared for the Australian Federal Police Missing Persons Coordination Centre 2021 THIS PAGE HAS BEEN INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK 1 CONTENTS LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 INTRODUCTION 8 METHODS 9 DEFINITIONS 16 SCOPE OF THE REPORT 20 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 21 PART 1: Children and young people missing from OOHC Context 26 The Current Study 33 PART 2: Demographics of young people missing from OOHC Age Context 41 The Current Study 44 Gender Context 45 The Current Study 49 Race/Ethnicity and Cultural Identity Context 51 The Current Study 54 Indigeneity Context 56 The Current Study 62 Additional individual factors Context 65 Sexual identity 65 Disability 65 Mental Health issues 67 2 Traumatic childhood experiences 68 Substance use 68 The Current Study 69 PART 3: Youth who repeatedly go missing Context 71 Pattern of missing 72 The risk factors 72 Youth in OOHC 72 An indicator of vulnerability 73 The Current Study 74 PART 4: The reasons youth in OOHC go missing Context 76 Push and Pull Factors 76 Intersectionality 76 Social Reconnection 79 Detachment 83 The Current Study 85 PART 5: The OOHC environment Context 87 Pre-care experience 87 Entry to care 87 Previous care experience 87 Concerns about the OOHC environment 88 Type of placement 95 Out of Area placements 106 Placement instability 106 Time in placement 107 Lack of services, planning and assessments 108 The education system 108 The Current Study 109 3 PART 6: The pattern of missing episodes Context 110 How youth went missing 110 Missing in company 111 Multiple missing episodes from a single location 111 The length of missing episodes 112 The number of missing episodes 113 How youth were located 113 Where youth were located 115 The Current Study 117 PART 7: Experiences while missing Context 127 Secondary Victimisation 128 Risks encountered while missing 133 Sexual Exploitation 133 Homelessness 138 Physical health and injury 139 Mental health 141 Substance use 141 Disengagement from education 142 Involvement in the criminal justice system 143 Criminal Child Exploitation 146 Deaths of missing youth 147 Negative Adult Outcomes 150 Assessing vulnerability 152 Safe and Well checks and Return Home Interviews 152 The Current Study 155 4 CONCLUSION 161 APPENDIX A 164 REFERENCES 166 5 LIST OF GRAPHS AND TABLES GRAPHS National Missing children - care status (individuals) 33 National Missing youth - care status (individuals) 34 National Missing children - care status (episodes) 35 National Missing youth - care status (episodes) 36 National Missing children - age by care status 44 National Missing youth - age by care status 44 National Missing children - gender by care status 49 National Missing youth - gender 50 National Missing children - ethnicity by care status 55 National Missing youth - ethnicity by care status 55 National Missing youth - Indigenous status by care status 63 National Missing youth - repeat missing by care status 75 TABLES Table 1: Numbers and rates of children and young people in OOHC in Australia 39 Table 2: Percentage of children and young people missing from OOHC in the study by jurisdiction 39 Table 3: Number of individuals reported missing 40 Table 4: Number of missing episodes 40 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This report was written by Dr Kath McFarlane, Director of Kath McFarlane Consulting Pty Ltd and Adjunct Associate Professor, The Kirby Institute, UNSW Medicine, University of New South Wales, under the auspices of the Community Restorative Centre Limited (CRC) https://www.crcnsw.org.au Statistical analysis was undertaken by Dr Peter Geelan-Small, Statistical Consultant, Stats Central, Mark Wainwright Analytical Centre, University of New South Wales. Supplementary analysis was undertaken by: Keegan Altmann Breezy Altmann John Murray 7 INTRODUCTION In 2019, the Australian Federal Police National Missing Persons Coordination Centre (the ‘NMPCC’) contracted The Community Restorative Centre Limited and Kath McFarlane Consulting Pty Ltd to produce a report setting out a national picture of children and young people reported missing in Australia. The aim of the project was to aid insight into the incidence of missing person reports received by police, so as to allow the NMPCC to determine and implement prevention strategies with State and Territory police to safeguard at-risk youth. Particular attention was to be directed to youth (aged 13- 17 years inclusive) in Out Of Home Care (‘OOHC’). Australian State and Territory police services supplied de-identified data relating to 1171 individuals and 3009 episodes involving children and young people reported missing during a 30-day period in 2019. The project team examined this data to identify: • The characteristics and attributes of missing youth; • The characteristics and attributes of specific categories of missing youth, namely those who repeatedly go missing; and • Jurisdictional similarities and differences in policy and procedures for reporting missing youth. Following receipt of the report in 2020, the NMPCC determined to publicly release a report into children and youth (aged 0-18 years) reported missing from OOHC in Australia. Analysis of the police data is presented alongside a review of international and domestic academic and ‘grey’ literature to provide further insight into the incidence, motivations, and experiences of children and young people who go missing from OOHC, and agency responses to them. In March 2020, almost a year after this report was commissioned, the Victorian Commission for Children and Young People announced its inquiry into young people who are absent or missing from residential care.1 This announcement highlighted the importance of identifying the particular drivers for young people who go missing, to increase understanding of their experiences while missing, and to encourage agencies to respond effectively and appropriately when youth are located. 8 METHODS DEVELOPMENT OF THE PROJECT This report provides an analysis of the data provided by police in all Australian jurisdictions (with one exception), regarding children and youth (0-18 years of age) who were reported missing during a 30- day period in 2019. Particular attention was paid to youth (aged 13-17 inclusive) reported missing from OOHC. The project scope, key themes and findings were discussed at various stages with the NMPCC and jurisdictional members of the Police Consultative Group on Missing Persons (‘PCGMP’), as follows: • in May 2019 fields to be included in the data collection form were workshopped at a face- to-face session of the Police Consultative Group on Missing Persons (‘PCGMP’) bi-annual forum; • in November 2019 a synopsis of the key themes drawn from the literature review was presented to each jurisdiction’s police service; • in June 2020 an outline of the key findings of the statistical analysis was provided for discussion at the PCGMP bi-annual forum; • throughout 2020 a series of ZOOM and conference calls were held to discuss the findings relevant to the national picture and to each jurisdiction; and • in November 2020 a face-to-face presentation was given at the PCGMP bi-annual forum. In 2020 the PCGMP determined to publicly release a national report into children and youth (aged 0- 18 years) reported missing from OOHC in Australia. THE DATA COLLECTION FORM The data collection form was developed by the project team. It was based on the form initially developed by the NMPCC, and subsequently revised by the Australian Institute of Criminology (the ‘AIC’) which informed its analysis of missing person reports gathered between 2005-2011.2 This form required substantial revision in order to provide a specific focus on youth who went missing from OOHC as this field had not previously been collected. Fields to be included in the form were workshopped at a face-to-face meeting with the NMPCC and police representatives in 2019 and refined through subsequent email exchanges. A copy of the form is at Appendix A. 9 PROVISION OF POLICE DATA The PCGMP provided data relating to missing children and young people reports received in a 30-day period. To ensure the privacy of the individuals involved, the data collection period has not been specified in this report. Individual jurisdictions have also been anonymised as Jurisdiction 1 (‘J1’) through to Jurisdiction 8 (‘J8’). Information from J8 was subsequently removed from analysis due to the limited sample size. Accordingly, the analysis in this report relates to data from seven Australian jurisdictions. Data was provided to the project team by the NMPCC after being extracted by state and territory police from each jurisdiction’s database of missing person reports. Police also manually reviewed the files of individuals reported as missing, and extracted information, if known, regarding their OOHC placement, demographic material, the missing experience and whether the missing youth was known to other divisions within that jurisdiction’s police service. This material was then de-identified and entered into Excel spreadsheets by police before being provided to the project team. The data also comprised free-text commentary in the form of a few lines or a paragraph, which was entered by police based on officers’ interpretation of material contained in individual missing person files. This primarily constituted reasons why young people had gone missing, based on the missing person report made to police, or ‘safe and well’ interviews conducted with a young person on their return. Information regarding how and where a missing young person was located was also provided in free-text form. This commentary was reviewed and coded into themes by the project team and subsequently presented in table and/or graph form. STATISTICAL METHODS Data sets for missing persons were received from seven Australian jurisdictions. Individuals were classified for reporting by age as children (aged 12 years and under) and youth (aged 13 to 17 years, both inclusive).